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The Summer of '62; Episode 15

Uncle Ralph's Boat

Uncle
Ralph was Rich's father's brother.

Three
or four times a summer Uncle Ralph took Rich to his boat on Lake
Erie.

Rich
sat in a chair at the living room window waiting and watching
anxiously for Uncle Ralph to arrive. Rich expected him between five
and five-thirty. He glanced impatiently at a digital clock that
looked like a TV, that was on top of the TV. It flipped the numbers
over with each passing minute.

It
was 5:22 when Duke’s ears perked up – long before Rich saw Uncle
Ralph’s car, hidden by the corn field to the north, come to a stop
at the intersection north of their house.

Duke
was a playful Boston Terrier.

As
soon as Uncle Ralph’s car turned onto our road he came into clear
view and Duke began prancing expectantly around the house and
barking.

Rich
dashed into the bedroom where Mr. Larsen was sleeping and told him
Uncle Ralph was here and he was leaving. He waved Rich on. He
streaked through the living room with Duke barking at his heels,
grabbed his duffel bag, and raced to Uncle Ralph’s car. Rich shooed
Duke back to the house and grabbed hold of the back door handle of
Uncle Ralph's Olds four door sedan, but noticed the front passenger
side seat was empty. Rich opened the front door and climbed in.

Uncle
Ralph was alone. Aunt Bessie was usually with him.

It
was difficult to conceive that Rich's dad and Uncle Ralph were
brothers. In many ways they were opposites. Uncle Ralph was small in
comparison with Mr. Larsen. He was not temperamental or boisterous.
He had course wavy gray hair combed straight back. His eyes were deep
set and his prominent black rounded eyebrows made him look like a
wise owl. He wore glasses and looked over the tops of them often.

“Where’s
Aunt Bessie?” Rich asked.

“She
decided to spend a weekend at home with her daughter,” Uncle Ralph
said and turned the car around in Miss Driver’s driveway checking
for traffic over the tops of his glasses.

The
drive to Lake Erie normally lasted about two and a half hours and
Aunt Bessie always packed a few sandwiches to eat on the way. She
thought it was foolish to pay people to prepare food for you.

“There’s
a couple of sandwiches in the back seat if you want to eat,” Uncle
Ralph offered, “but I’m going to stop in Findlay and get
something, how bout you? Can you wait that long?” Uncle Ralph
smiled.

“Sure,”
Rich said.

“Bessie
doesn’t think I can operate the boat without her,” Uncle Ralph
quipped. “What do you think?”

“With
you at the helm and me as first mate I don’t see any problems,”
Rich said.

“We’ll
sleep on the lake tonight,” Uncle Ralph said. “We’ll fish until
we can’t hold our poles over the side of the boat or hold our eyes
open and craw back into the cabin and let the sound of the lake and
the waves rock us to sleep.”

“That
sounded intriguing and adventuresome,” Rich thought. “This was
going to be a great weekend.”

They
stopped at a dairy stand and Uncle Ralph purchased a couple of hot
dogs each and continued the drive to the lake. Nearing the lake they
turned on to a gravel road that led to a place called Bar Harbor.
That's where Uncle Ralph’s boat was docked. We stopped at a bait
shop for minnows, red worms, and ice for the ice chest and cooler
before arriving at the boat. At the boat they unsnapped the canvass
cover over the cockpit and deck and unloaded the supplies from the
car onto the boat.

Uncle
Ralph built the boat himself as a winter project. Rich remembered the
day when his dad and a group of Uncle Ralph’s friends gathered in a
garage to flip the hull when it was finished. It was an eighteen foot
cabin cruiser. It was rather small, but at times it slept five –
Uncle Ralph, Aunt Bessie, Mrs. Larsen, Mr. Larsen and Rich.

The
boat was Uncle Ralph's treasure. And he chose the share it with Rich.
And Rich was appreciative beyond what anyone could imagine.

From Kenton Lewis: You Must Read This First To Know What The Heck Goes On Here

This site contains mostly fiction. Currently a novel is posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday entitled Beyond Beyond. It is broken down into short episodes between two and four pages each. Thus, if you enter on anything other than episode 1, it would be good the scroll down to find previous episodes.

The archives are full of short stories. Some short stories are very short, just one posting. Others are broken down into episodes also.

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This Is He

Taken shortly after my beheading. I refused to give up coffee. "Not from my cold dead hands!"